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Chair Professor Prof. Dr. Rahul Mukherji

Rahul Mukherji holds the Modern Politics of South Asia Chair at the South Asia Institute in Heidelberg University. He was managing director of the South Asia Institute (2020-2022) and spokesperson for the Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (2021-2022) in Heidelberg. Mukherji had earlier served as an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore (2008-2016, Singapore) and the Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi, 2006-2008). He has lectured at the University of Vermont (Burlington, 1999) at the Hunter College of the City University of New York (New York, 1996-1998), as a PhD candidate and President’s Fellow of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1997-1999). He was a visiting scholar at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies of the Australian National University (Canberra, 2002), and at the Institute of Global Public Policy and Governance at Fudan University (Shanghai, 2023). Mukherji served as a visiting professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai, 2023) and is currently a visiting research professor and the Bandodkar Chair in political economy at the University of Goa in India (2024-2025).

Mukherji serves on the board of journals such as Governance, Global Public Policy and Governance, Pacific Affairs, India Review, and the Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences. He is the editor of Indian Politics and Policy and a book series titled: Oxford Institutions and Development in South Asia series published by Oxford University Press, London.   
 

Indian Politics and Policy

Prof. Dr. Rahul Mukherji

Select Publications

  • Rahul Mukherji, “How to Stop India’s Authoritarian Slide,” Journal of Democracy, Vol. 35, No. 1 (2024), pp. 19-29. This paper and ongoing research forms the basis for this proposal.
  • Rahul Mukherji, “NGOs and Civil Society,” in Sumit Ganguly, Dinsha Mistree and Larry Diamond, eds., The Troubling State of India’s Democracy (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2024).
  • Tanvi Deshpande, Rahul Mukherji & Mekhala Sastry, “Policy Styles and India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change,” Policy Studies, 46, 1 (2023), 46-63.
  • Rahul Mukherji & Himanshu Jha, “India and Bangladesh in Global Financial Governance: From Structural Conflict to Embedded Liberalism in the Climate Finance Regime,” in Joost Pauwelyn, Martino Maggetti, Tim Büthe and Ayelet Berman, eds., Rethinking Participation in Global Governance (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022).
  • Rahul Mukherji “Covid vs. Democracy: India’s Illiberal Remedy”,” Journal of Democracy, Vol 31, No. 4 (October 2020): 91-105.
  • Rahul Mukherji & Seyed Hossein Zarhani, “The Pandemic and Competitive Authoritarianism in India”, in Aurel Croissant and Olli Hellmann, eds., Democracy, State-Capacity and the Governance of COVID-19 in Asia-Oceania (New York: Routledge, 2023).
  • Rahul Mukherji & Seyed Hossein Zarhani, “Governing India: Evolution of Programmatic Welfare in Andhra Pradesh,” Studies in Indian Politics, Vol. 8, No. (2020): 7-21.
  • Rahul Mukherji, Globalization and Deregulation: Ideas, Interests and Institutional Change in India (New Delhi, London and New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).
  • Rahul Mukherji, “Ideas, Interests and the Tipping Point: Explaining Economic Change in India,” Review of International Political Economy, Vol. 20, No. 2 (2013), pp. 363-89.
  • Rahul Mukherji, “Interests, Wireless Technology and Institutional Change: From Government Monopoly to Regulated Competition in Indian Telecommunications;” Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 68, No. 2 (2009), pp. 491-517.
  • Sumit Ganguly and Rahul Mukherji, India since 1980 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011). Brazilian translation, A India Desde 1980 (Rio de Janeiro: apicuri, 2014).
  • Rahul Mukherji, “The Politics of Telecommunications Regulation in India: Explaining State - Industry Alliances Favouring Foreign Investment,” Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 44, No. 10 (2008), pp. 1405-1423. Lead article.

All Recent Publications

Welfare

Politics of Climate Change and Welfare

Political Economy

Political Economy of Globalisation and Reform

Democracy

Democracy and Political Culture

Curriculum Vitae

Education:

  • 1999: PhD, Department of Political Science, Columbia University, New York.
  • 1992: M.Phil., Department of South Asia, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.
  • 1990: Master at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi
  • 1988: Bachelor in Economics (Honours) at Delhi University (DU), Delhi.

Jobs Held:

  • 2020-2022: Managing Director of the South Asia Institute at Heidelberg University
  • 2021-2022: Speaker, Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS), Heidelberg University
  • 2019: Co-Chair of the China-India Forum coordinated by Fudan University Shanghai
  • 7 January 2008 - 14 June 2016: Associate Professor in the South Asian Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore, Singapore
  • July 2014 - September 2015: Honorary Senior Fellow and Head of Research Department, Institute of South Asian Studies, NUS.
  • 2006 - 2008: Associate Professor at the Centre for Policy Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.
  • 2003- 2006: Assistant Professor at the Centre for Political Studies, JNU, New Delhi.
  • 2001 - 2003: Fellow at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, New Delhi.
  • 1999 - 2001: Assistant Research Professor at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.
  • 1999: Visiting Professorships at the Government Departments of Dartmouth College and Georgetown University – Declined.
  • Spring 1999: Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Vermont, Burlington.
  • 1996-1998: Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Hunter College, City University of New York, New York.

Download CV

Awards

  • 2024 - 2025: Visiting Professor (Bandodkar Chair) in Political Economy, University of Goa, Goa, India.
  • 2023 - 2024: Visiting Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India.
  • 2023: Adjunct Scholar, Institute for Global Public Policy, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
  • 2021 - 2023: Non-resident Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore,
    Singapore.
  • 2018: Visiting Scholar: Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
  • July 2014 - September 2015: Honorary Senior Fellow and Head of Research Department, Institute of South Asian Studies, NUS.
  • 2014: Office of Deputy President (Research and Technology), NUS Award for Research Excellence.
  • 2012: Office of Deputy President (Research and Technology), NUS Award for Research Excellence.
  • 2005 - 2006: Visiting Research Fellow – Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.
  • 2004: Associate, Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies - Columbia University, New York.
  • 2002: Visiting Fellow, Australia South Asia Research Centre - Economics Division, Research School of
    Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra.
  • 1997 - 1999: President’s Fellow, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - Columbia University, New York.
  • 1993 - 1996: Ambedkar Overseas Fellow in International Relations, Government of India, New Delhi.

Professional Service

  • 2023 - present: Editor, Indian Politics and Policy.
  • 2023 - present: International Advisory Board Member, Centre for Multilevel Federalism, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi.
  • 2021 - present: Member, International Editorial Board, Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences.
  • 2020 - present: Member of the Editorial Board, Global Public Policy and Governance.
  • 2018 - present: Series Editor: Institutions and Development in South Asia, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
  • 2013 - present: Member of the Editorial Board, Bandung: Journal of the Global South (Springer).
  • 2012 - present: Member of the Editorial Board, Pacific Affairs.
  • 2016 - present : Member, Editorial Board, Governance.
  • 2007 - present: Member, Research Advisory Board, University of Pennsylvania Institute for the Advanced Study of India, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India.
  • 2004 - present: Contributing Editor, India Review

Opinion Pieces and Commentaries

Talks and Podcasts

Contact

Prof. Dr. Rahul Mukherji
Chair Professor/ Head of Department

Department of Political Science
South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies
Voßstraße 2, Building 4130, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany

Email: mukherji@uni-heidelberg.de

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